Heritability of Oat Caryopsis Percentage and Other Grain Quality Components1

Abstract

Three oat (Avena sativa L.) crosses involving parents with a wide range of caryopsis percentage and other grain quality components were studied in F2, F3, and F4. A single backcross was studied in BCF1 and BCF2. Primary caryopsis percentage of parents averaged 80.3% for ‘Q.O.30.28,’ 77.1% for ‘RL 2123.38,’ 73.1% for ‘Beedee,’ and 71.5% for ‘Coker 61‐13.’Progeny caryopsis percentages were generally within observed parental values with mean values approximating those of the midparents. The mean of the backcross progenies approached the high caryopsis percentage of the recurrent parent.Heritability estimates for primary caryopsis percentage by variance components were high with the exception of Q.O.30.28/RL 2123.38 where both parents were high in caryopsis percentage. Heritability estimates ranged from 0.36 for Q.O.30.28/RL 2123.38 to 0.93 for Q.O.30.28/Coker 61‐13. Estimates of genetic advance ranged from 0.51 to 3.95%, suggesting that increases above midparent and near high parent values could be attained by selecting for high caryopsis percentage. The data suggest difficulty in isolating segregates with more than 80% caryopsis.